Update, June 14: According to the Daily Cal, Wood’s arraignment Friday afternoon was canceled. He is no longer in custody, according to the Alameda County sheriff’s department, and no charges appear to have been filed.

A school district proposal to replace decades-old portable classrooms at Berkeley’s Washington Elementary and Berkeley Arts Magnet schools with a set of newer ones that are being removed from the Berkeley High campus, has been delayed for further consideration after concerns were expressed by parents at the schools.

Today, April 19, 2013, is my 18th birthday. Yesterday I ventured from Berkeley to Boston on a week-long college tour. The plan was to travel to Boston and New York to celebrate my birthday and visit Wellesley and Barnard colleges. With the lockdown of this city, my plans have been put on hold. Sitting in my uncle’s house in Boston, in the midst of the rumors, suspects and shoot-outs, I can’t help but wonder how many more people will be ushered into adulthood in a sea of violence.

Berkeley High School Principal Pasquale Scuderi sent the following email memo out to parents at 5:05 p.m. It appears below in its entirety. To subscribe to the school email list, send a message to bhs-request@lmi.net with the word “subscribe” in the subject line.

Berkeley High’s Principal, Pasquale Scuderi, this afternoon sent an emailed letter to the BHS community in the wake of the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, CT, this morning. In it, he addresses how the school has dealt with communicating news of the mass shooting at an elementary school to BHS students, issues of security on campus, and shares guidelines on how to talk to our children about such a senseless and potentially traumatic incident.

Update, 4:30 p.m.: The Berkeley Police Department now reportsit was a neighbor, not the victim of a burglary, who chased suspects and asked people to call 911. Officers recovered some of the victim’s property. The suspects are described as: African American male juvenile, 16 years old, 5’7”-5’8”, 140 pounds wearing a gray shirt and baggy blue jeans; and African American male juvenile, 16 years old, 5’7”-5’8”, 140 pounds wearing a black and white short-sleeved striped shirt and baggy blue jeans.